THE ORDEAL OF WARSAW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23916, 18 September 1939, Page 6

THE ORDEAL OF WARSAW

The issue by the German High Command of an ultimatum calling upon Warsaw to surrender, and, failing that, giving the civilian population twelve hours in which to leave what would after that become an “ active war area,” seems to reach pretty well the peak of irony. The onlooking world must deeply appreciate the ineffable and illuminating Nazi radio commentary that “ There is no example in history of an army behaving as chivalrously, fairly, and generously as the Germans to Warsaw.” It is of passing interest, of course, to note that in his attempt to crush Poland in a lightning war Herr Hitler should think it worth while to interpolate a theatrical military gesture or two. But seeing that all Poland, in the German view, has apparently become an active war area, and that the evidence qt non-discrimination between military and non-military objectives has been too overwhelming to be disregarded, the value —to say nothing of the chivalry—of the dispensation offered Warsaw must seem to be so heavily discounted as to be almost negligible. The Polish capital has a population of over a million and a-quarter, and whither the unfortunate non-combatants, the women and children, the old and the weak, were expected to betake themselves in order to escape the full fury which is by now unleashed would seem difficult to suggest. In a radio broadcast from the Polish Government the ordeal to which Warsaw is being subjected under a rain of shells and incendiary bombs is described in appalling terms. To such an extent are the invaders of Poland spreading death, ruin, and desolation in their track that the citizens can find little to choose between the perilous harbourage of the cellars of their capital and the chances of flight from the beleaguered city. The reports that the Germans were bombing all towns and villages in Southern and Central Poland, and that the German High Command had announced that open towns and villages throughout the country would in future be bombed and shelled because the Poles had deliberately converted these places into war zones, were deemed sufficiently impressive by Lord Halifax to warrant the utterance by him of a solemn warning some days ago to the German Government on the subject. It is only to be expected, however, that, as officially interpreted from Berlin, what is happening in Poland should bear little resemblance to Polish and foreign accounts from that war-stricken theatre. The Berlin announcement of the ultimatum to Warsaw has been followed by another to the effect that Germany will not bomb open cities if her enemies also refrain from doing so. The only conclusion possible is that while Berlin is officially keeping up the pretence of the limitation of Nazi war operations to military objectives the military command in the war arena is employing utterly ruthless methods in the hope of crushing the heroic resistance of the Poles as speedily as possible.